Lilian Carmen and the Ruby of the Souls
by Evelyn Silver
Summary: After the 7th book... some new and old characters... please read the first chapter!


The idea behind this is a kinda 'after-the-7th-book' story with a bunch of new students. I don't wanna tell you much more except that this is just the first chapter and i promise it will get better after i introduce the character and all. Sorry it's novel-length already!   
  
Well, here it goes...   
  
Lillian Carmen and the Ruby of the Souls   
  
Chapter One   
  
Lilian Carmen woke up in the middle of the night, for the fourth time in a row. She took a fleeting glance at the clock, only to learn the power must have died during the night and 12:00 had been flashing for who-knows how long. Letting out a exasperated sigh, Lily walked out of her room into the kitchen, almost scaring herself with the image of her tempest-tossed hair in the mirror. She analyzed her face for a moment, curly blond hair, big green eyes, average-looking face, before her mind wandered to the reason she was up- the dream she had been having. br   
A shadowy figure in hooded robes, nothing but a bright sinister grin showing, another person with bright green eyes coming to confront it, a high penetrating scream...br   
Lily believed that drems carried a message, or at least a memory. But the lesson in this nightmare she had yet to find, as it resembled nothing in her waking life. brEverything she experianced during the day was ordinary, even rutine. Her time in 5th grade at Hopelawn School droned on, or had, it was now the summer. At home she had little drama, besides the bickering between her four siblings and her. In fact, Lily didn't like accepting that their was nothing particularly unusual or different about her at all, except her way of looking at things. Realizing she was getting lost in her thoughts, Lily looked at the kitchen clock (3:36am) gave another heaving sigh, and went back to sleep. br   
The dream did not end that night, but continued for a full week straight. This Lily did not think was fair at all, because after the 9th night of the nightmare, would be her 11th birthday.   
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She woke on August 17th, almost leaped out of bed, ran downstairs and saw a spectacular pile of pancakes on the kitchen table. This had to be Lily's lucky day. Besides being her birthday, she had slept through the night, iandi got to have pancakes for breakfast. She was ecstatic, and lunged for the biggest pancake. br  
"If you'd avoid my toe, please..." br  
Great. Her older brother and sister had beaten her to the precious breakfast. She hadn't seen Kendra by the stove because she had been wearing all black, as usual, and Paul had been feasting straight from the refrigerater. br  
"It's my birthday!" Lily announced to the house. br  
"We know, Lils, you only told us, oh, everyday this week. Be a bit quiet, 'kay? You could wake up Della and she's an evil little beast in the morning." Paul grumbled. "Happy birthday, anyway, though." br  
"You're not exactly Mr. Bright and Cheery either," Lily started to say, but decided to be nicer today and thanked him. "Where's Dad?" br  
"Catching up on his beauty sleep." br  
Lily saw Kendra roll her eyes before smothiring her pancakes in whipped cream. Then, amazed that her sibling went through some much trouble for her breakfast she added, "Who's extremely great idea was the pancakes?" br  
Silence. It wasn't like them to be so humble, but she let it go. "Well, I'll go check on Telly than." br  
Lily pulled on a random pair of shorts and a tee-shirt, tried to tame her hair and walked outside. Telly was the Carmens' big, brown, overly rambunctous dog, named because he acted so stupid, watching him was better than tellevision. He ran up to greet Lily the moment he saw her, but she was distracting by the strange feeling that someone was watching her. br  
"I thought those pancakes would wake ya up nice an' erly. Did'n know the rest o' yer fam'ly'd be comin' too." br  
Lily whipped around to see a huge man with gigantic bushy grey hair and a beard to match. br 


End file.
